State issues permit for Holland to expand coal-fired-power plant

Holland is considering replacing one of the units at the James DeYoung power plant.

Holland BPW

The state’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment initially denied the air quality permit. That’s because former Governor Jennifer Granholm said the state must consider whether or not a community really needs more power before issuing a permit. An Ottawa County judge ruled that’s not a good enough reason to deny the permit and ordered the DNRE to review the permit application by this Sunday.

Brad Wurfel is a spokesman for the DNRE.

“We’ve been working with the City of Holland and EPA on this and what we came to throughout that process was just the end of the line in terms of the court imposed date for getting this concluded and we’ve done so.”

The permit would allow the city to build a new 78-megawatt coal burning unit at the city’s existing coal plant. The new ‘clean coal’ unit would replace one that’s nearly 60 years old.

Holland BPW Director Loren Howard notes the unit would be able to burn more than just coal.

“We can burn wood waste in it. We can burn sludge from our waste water treatment plant. We can burn tire-derived fuel – old tires.”